Welcome to Seintiau!

There is not a land of like size in all Christendom with so many saints in it as were of old among Welshmen

Saints populate the landscape of Wales in place-names, church dedications and holy wells. From St Fagans to Llandudno, St Davids to Pennant Melangell, the names of saints are bound up with the very fabric of the country. Some, like David and Beuno, are well known, but many are forgotten.

Seintiau is a site dedicated to research on the saints of Wales. From 2013–17, the ‘Cult of Saints in Wales’ project has been creating digital editions of some 100 medieval Welsh-language texts about saints. Many of these texts have never been edited before, while those editions that do exist are widely scattered and of very variable quality. Our work has been to provide reliable modern texts with detailed notes and English translations, making a discrete Welsh hagiographical tradition available for study both inside and outside Wales. These texts will soon be available on this website, as well as a forthcoming compendium of information on the saints and their traditions.

As we bring these resources to fruition, a new project, ‘Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae’, has begun to work on the Latin Lives of Welsh saints. Editions of these Latin texts will be available on this website during 2018–19.